I used quick, let's scarper before the boss comes back to inject some levity into a recent meeting, but got only blank stares for my trouble. When asked to explain scarper to my American chums, all I could think of was you know, as in "scarper lads, it's the filth", i.e. run away quickly before the police catch you, but run away quickly really doesn't convey the essence of this truly useful word. Is there a good American English equivalent?

Note: it is difficult to convey the exact context. Imagine high school kids (not the good ones) deciding to try and evade the deans, or maybe a bunch of dropouts or low-level criminals about to get caught breaking in.

@Orbling: As an American, I haven't heard that word before in my life (that I can remember).
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KosmonautJan 23 '11 at 16:38

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I had never heard of this word either. Interestingly, Merriam-Webster define it without any "chiefly British" tag, but it appears not at all in either COCA or COHA.
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nohat♦Jan 23 '11 at 17:23

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@Kosmonaut @nohat @dave: All the etymology points at it being of London origin, either via Italian influence or Cockney rhyming slang with "Scapa flow". Probably why, as a Londoner, it is totally normal to me. It is particularly used in reference to getting away from the police, hence @ukayer's example 'scarper lads, it's the filth' (filth being a slang term for the police).
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OrblingJan 23 '11 at 18:53

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I find it amusing that your usage example, 'scarper lads, it's the filth', contains only 2 words commonly used in AmEng. Lads is will understood, of course, but not used, while I've never heard of scarper at all or filth as a term for the police.
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DustyJan 26 '11 at 17:10

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Of all the suggestions, "bail" and "split" seem the most appropriate for the context. All the other ones seem hopelessly dated or totally out of character.
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horatioFeb 15 '11 at 15:26

@Elendi - scram also seems too twee. Imagine a bunch of drunken louts coming out of a pub at 11PM, they might use scarper but I doubt they would use scram.
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ukayerJan 23 '11 at 17:26

Both “scram” and “vamoose” seeme pretty apt to me (orig. UK, now lived for 6 years in US/Canada). Yes, in some contexts and tones of voice they can be a bit camp — but so can “scarper”! I can certainly imagine an old codger shaking his fist at the kids playing on his lawn and shouting “Oy! Scram!” in complete seriousness.
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PLLJan 23 '11 at 18:14

@ukayer I think scram would work in the context you presented. Quick, let's scram before the boss comes back.
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ghoppeJan 26 '11 at 17:13

@ghoppe yes it works, but in British English there is definitely a difference between scarper and scram
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ukayerJan 28 '11 at 5:44

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@ukayer, I don't think scram has any twee connotation in American English. It's certainly the first word that came to my mind for substituting into "Quick, let's ___ before the boss comes back."
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MarthaªFeb 13 '11 at 19:02

i dnno about absquatulate... to me it's a facetious made-up-word to sound like fake-latin. it's kind of being overly mellifluous for no reason. compare: 'scarper, it's the filth!' intending a sense of hurrying and such, to 'by golly lads, it's the police! let us absquatulate before they chance upon us!'
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ClaudiuFeb 15 '11 at 15:23

@Robusto: How widespread is that term, I've heard it a number of times, but do not know if it is specific to a region?
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OrblingJan 23 '11 at 11:43

@Orbling: It's of relatively recent coinage. I hear it among young(ish) people in the U.S. all the time.
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RobustoJan 23 '11 at 13:47

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@Orbling: It's pretty common, especially in the phrase "book it", which has a sense rather like "to hurry on foot", as in "I gotta book it to class" or "I saw some dude just booking it down the road earlier". The sense of "get out of here" isn't quite as common, but I think "I gotta book" would be understood as short for "I gotta book it outta here".
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Jon PurdyJan 23 '11 at 15:45

This seems interesting! Looking around, I get the impression that among people who use this phrase, it might be a pretty good equivalent; but it’s not clear to me either how widely it’s used/understood (I don’t remember having come across it in 5 years in Pittsburgh).
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PLLJan 23 '11 at 18:17

vamoose seems a bit 'twee' by comparison, though maybe just because it rhymes with caboose:-)
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ukayerJan 23 '11 at 8:09

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I don't think of "vamoose" as being twee, though I do not hear it often. I've always assumed (but never checked) that it is a conscious mis-pronunciation of "vamos" from Spanish.
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Tom HughesFeb 13 '11 at 22:45

I can't believe no one's tossed "run" or "run for it" out yet. That's the word we used in my high school, not even a full year ago, when we joked about all running out of the classroom when the teacher stepped out for a minute, which I think is something like what you're talking talking about. :)

"Quick! (Let's )run for it before she gets back!" or just "Quick! Run! Before she gets back!" is what I'd say.

I don't know how popular these are, but they are all American words meaning exactly what you're talking about (if they're not known it's probably because they're mostly used by high school kids running from the cops).

Dip (ie: Let's dip from the cops! They dipped out from the corner store.),
Bounce (same thing),
and Roll (more casual)

Please see the old comments to this question at the top, I explained the etymology there some time ago.
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OrblingFeb 15 '11 at 10:02

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Scamper sounds completely different to me. It's the way an excited puppy runs around a room. It holds no connotations of moving fast to a different location. Scarper has an additional connotation of a group splitting up, running off in different directions, to get away from authority. It's the sort of thing a bunch of kids might do when caught scrumping.
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TRiGAug 5 '11 at 22:25

Show your American Chums Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban and ask them to check out Ron Weasley's rat Scarpers's behavior (running away). That would better aid them better to understand what Scarper means.

I remember this from old British mysteries, I think either Dorothy L. Sayers or the Albert Campion books. Scarper is linked to gypsy talk (Romany). The gypsies said "scarpa." I would argue against "scamper" as the US equivalent. Squirrels scamper. Thugs scarper.